So, to start with, in general: test for flaky hardware/drivers/configuration with a handful of other games, maybe try different video drivers, update the game with period correct patches.

Some more or less likely relevant points in the readme:

2.4.4. The game starts but I only see a black screen.

Try running the 'Command & Conquer Windows 95 Edition Setup'
program from the Westwood program group and selecting 640x480
graphics mode. This should be compatible with more systems although
you may notice a slight 'letterboxing' effect when using this mode.

2.7. Microsoft PowerToys

If you have the Microsoft PowerToys system extensions installed
on your system (including QuickRes and FlexiCD) you may experience
excessive accessing of the CD followed by system lockup. If this
happens, you should remove the MicroSoft PowerToys while playing C&C
95.

2.10. 16 bit CD-ROM drivers

C&C 95 may fail to start if there is a 16 bit CD-ROM driver loaded
from the AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS. If you have references to MSCDEX
or equivelent drivers then try removing them from your autoexec and
config. WIndows 95 does not need these drivers to work and in some
cases will actually perform better without them.

Thanks for the reply, I can't find any patches for the original version of the game, only later ones intended for Win7+ that don't work with Win95 (I did try, complaining about various libraries that were incompatible)

I don't have any CD drivers in my autoexec.bat for Win95, I don't have PowerToys installed (didn't know there was such a thing) and tried the various options in CC setup (640x400, 640x480 and a couple checkboxes, I tried them all)

All of my other games work great, including Red alert 95. Bizarre!

It might pay to check out Westwood's C&C Gold FAQ:

http://web.archive.org/web/19971009143406/htt … rt/ccgtech.html

Note particularly the response to the "Why do I get a smeared game screen or "hall of mirrors" effect during play?" question since it indicates issues with the S3 Virge 3D chipset (which may or may not be relevant to your particular variant).

Good luck.

Yeah there's two checkboxes in the setup program for it that the S3 Virge issue it talks about relates to, Red Alert unchecked it by default and it works great, C&C95 had it checked by default but checking or unchecking it doesn't seem to make any difference sadly

Thanks for the FAQ though, useful to have!

At worse there's always the DOS ver of C&C but C&C for Windows should work fine.

Or, y'know, the fan-patched version that runs on pretty much anything modern and doesn't require a legacy PC/OS 😜

Needs the .net framework though, for its enhanced config tool.

Hey there, if that's really you then I love your work. I've used your patched version on Win10 before and it runs great 😀

In this case I'm trying to run C&C 95 on my Windows 95 box, infact the computer I used to play it back in the day.

I did try your patched version on Win95 but couldn't find a way to get it to run. First it complained about missing GDI dll, which I managed to find a Win95 patch for, but I ran up against a brick wall eventually. Is there a way to get your version to run on Win95? I settled with running the latest patched DOS version instead, which works fine

I had similar experience. Installed First decade and above patch on a XP PC then copied C&C over to my Win98 PC.
complained about a dll or 2 which I copied from a C&C gold install, I think I got as far as starting a network game but everything exploded after a few seconds.

I'd also love the fan patch to work on old OS's but don't think Nyerguds quite gets the fascination with old OS's 😉

Yes this is a subforum for people with old computers with interest to play these old games on old computers where any "XP patch" or better doesn't fly here. There's no desperate lost causes here to plug a fan patch for.